Bin men have refused to empty a bin a week after a load of needles were found placed in the recyling.

A recycling bin in Wheeler Close, Boston, was left un-emptied by bin men who said non-recyclable items were found in it.

It comes a week after Boston Borough Council issued warnings to people not to place non-recyclable items in the bin after a bin man had a narrow escape finding a load of needles in a bag at the top of the bin.

One resident contacted Lincolnshire Live to say the bin had been left behind.

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He said: “I believe this is a similar location to where the bin men found a load of needles. I can’t say what the bin contained but they looked inside it, closed the lid and left it.”

A council spokesman said: “In line with normal council protocol a blue bin was not emptied at a property in Wheeler Close today as it contained items which cannot be recycled and, if tipped into the lorry, would have contaminated the load.”

Just last week, a Boston bin man came across a bin with its lid wedged open with a piece of carpet as he was completing a round in Boston town centre.

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The council spokesman said had the man not spotted the needles the contents of the blue bin would have been emptied into the lorry and taken to the Boston Waste Transfer Station and then the Material Reclamation Facility where some sorting of recycled material is done by hand.

George Bernard, head of environmental services at the council, said: “This is a shocking abuse – the worst I have come across in 40 years. There are multiple issues here – not least the very real health risk posed to all those connected with collecting and processing recycled waste.”

Mr Bernard made an appeal for residents to not bag recycled material, but to place it loose in their blue bins, and to only place material in the bin which can be recycled – there is a guide on the council website.